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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. TU5"4 - 

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s? /PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 




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CORNELIUS GEORGE GOMEGYS, M. D 



HIS LIFE AND CAREER 

IN THE 

DEVELOPMENT OF CINCINNATI 

FOR NEARLY 

HALF A CENTURY 



WITH APPENDIX 



BY 

charles george' comegys, a. b., ll. b. 



CINCINNATI 
PUBLISHED BY THE) FAMILY 



w- 



0^ 






>31 



PRESS OF S. ROSENTHAL & CO 

15-27 WEST SIXTH ST. 

CINCINNATI. 




O the memory of my mother, 

Rebecca Tiffin Comegys, 
the noble help-meet of her husband, this book 
is affectionately dedicated. 



Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace, 
Sleep to the end, true soul and sweet j 
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed dead, 
While the stars burn, the moons increase. 
And the great ages onward roll.** 



PREFACE 



THIS memoir is written to preserve, in a brief way, some 
of the incidents and events which characterized the life 
and career of Dr. C. G. Comegys. While it is intended es_ 
pecially for his family, relatives, and friends, it is hoped that 
it may also interest those who have been associated with, or 
have been beneficiaries of, the institutions with which he was 
connected and for whose interests he labored. In whatever 
character he bore himself — as a physician, a churchman, a 
citizen, a member of city and educational boards — he sank his 
individuality, and acted only for the public welfare. It may, 
at some future day, be a gratification to his descendants to 
contemplate that, by his self-abnegation, and the voluntary 
giving up of opportunities of personal pecuniary advan- 
tage to help others, he gained a greater reward. 

This account, however, would be incomplete were no 
mention made of her who, for over fifty years, entered into 
the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and defeats of his life. 
In addition, therefore, to the dedication which has been made, 
a brief sketch is appended of a life which, though full of good 
deeds, can merely be outlined in this book. 

CHARGES G. COMEGYS. 
Cincinnati, February 10, 1899. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 



T T would not be possible, in a brief sketch, to 
present a complete history of the career of 
Dr. Comegys. His life was full of many in- 
cidents, and he lived for others, rather than 
for himself. Possessed of the highest ideals 
and the utmost purity of thought, his charac- 
ter was too earnest for the frivolities of life. 
He felt that he had a duty to perform, and he 
cast himself into the work, body and soul. 

A love for his fellow men filled his heart, 
and his one great impulse was to aid in the 
improvement of the mind as well as to heal 
the body, and to give to all persons equal oppor- 
tunities of education. The value of this he 
believed to be greater than riches ; and, though 
a busy man in his profession, he devoted the 
greater part of his life to active and indefatig- 



8 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

able efforts in trie cause of education. Thus, 
over forty years were spent in the faculties of 
the medical colleges and hospitals, in the 
School Board, and in the Board of Trustees 
of the University of Cincinnati. 

He was a friend to young men especial^, 
both by words of counsel, and by active en- 
deavors to aid them in obtaining employment. 
In this, too, his efforts were always disinter- 
ested and often to his own disadvantage. In 
the sick-room his skill and ready sympathy 
won the hearts of his patients, and caused 
him to be regarded as the confidential friend, 
as well as the medical adviser. 

Cornelius George Comegys was born July 
23, 1 8 16, on an old ancestral farm, called 
" Cherbourg", near Dover, Kent County, Dela- 
ware. His father was Cornelius Parsons 
Comegys, who was the Governor of Delaware, 
from 1838 to 1 84 1, and who, in the war of 181 2, 
was Lieutenant Colonel. The name Cornelius 
was an old family one, and was carried down 
from the Cornelius Comegys who came from 



CORNKUUS GEORGK COMRGYS, M. D. 9 

Holland to America and settled on the east 
shore of Chesapeake Bay, in old Kent Comity, 
Maryland, 1661, where he had a large planta- 
tion. He was naturalized, with his wife Milli- 
menty, and his children — Cornelius, Eliza- 
beth, William, and Hannah Comegys, in 167 1. 

The mother of Cornelius George Comegys 
was Ruhamah Marim, a daughter of John 
Mariin, a Lieutenant in the revolutionary 
army ; and, he was also descended from En- 
glish ancestors of the early colonial days — one 
of whom, William Winsmore, was a member 
of William Penn's Assembly in 1683. 

Cornelius George, or George, as he was 
always called by his family and relations, 
was the last child of the family born at Cher- 
bourg. This farm was a part of a tract of 
land granted in 1680 to William Winsmore, 
an ancestor on his mother's side, and known 
as "Little Pipe Elm" — the name of a family 
estate in England. Later it was called Cher- 
bourg, and in the lifetime of his father was 
sold. On account of family ties and his strong 



IO CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

affection for the home of his early days, it was 
purchased, about January i, 1881, by Corne- 
lius, and is now in the possession of his chil- 
dren. 

While in his earliest childhood, his father, 
who was the cashier of the Farmers' Bank in 
Dover, removed his family to that place, and 
their home was in the building in which the 
bank was located. There the four younger 
children were born. 

Time passed by, and the family, which had 
become of goodly size, was living happily amid 
pleasant surroundings, when the home was 
broken up. The cashier, who for eleven years 
had been faithful to his duties, suddenly, and 
from political causes entirely, was forced to 
leave the bank and the residence in the build- 
ing. This aroused a great deal of feeling, and 
an act for the vindication of the cashier was 
determined upon by those in power in the 
State. The State held a large proportion of 
the shares of stock of the Farmers' Bank, and 
the Legislature, then in session, and of the 



CORNKUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. II 

same party and politics as the cashier, imme- 
diately appointed him a Director in the bank. 
So that, a few days later, he sat at the meeting 
of the Board of Directors — a promotion which 
his colleagues, no doubt, failed to enjoy. 

The loss of position, together with salary 
and home incident to it, was, however, a seri- 
ous blow. It compelled him, in the middle of 
January, to move his family of eight children* 
(the youngest scarcely three months old) to 
Cherbourg, where, by reason of the distance 
from Dover and the condition of the roads in 
winter, they were cut off from the society of 
their friends, and were thrown upon their own 
resources for entertainment. At this time Cor- 
nelius was about twelve years of age. None of 
the children went to school for that first year, 
and such few books as were within their reach 
became the solace of their quiet lives and were 
read with avidity. 



* William H., Sarah Ann (afterwards, Mrs. Ridgely), 
Joseph P., Cornelius G., Benjamin B., Mary Elizabeth (after- 
wards, Mrs. Chatham), Maria, and John M. Comegys. 



12 CORNKUUS GKORG3 COM^GYS, M. D. 

When spring opened the fonr older sons 
were all set to work in the fields, and worked 
in accordance with their strength. 

The interrupted schooling was resumed a 
year later, as a public school was opened about 
two miles from their home, which the younger 
children attended. Cornelius, however, went 
to a private academy in Dover, about four 
miles away. This walk of eight miles every 
day, in all sorts of weather and over a bad 
road, was a pretty hard one, but he was faith- 
ful in his attendance and a zealous student — 
especially of mathematics. He had many 
friendly arguments, on this subject, with his 
younger brother, Benjamin, whom his propo- 
sitions often startled ; and, in such cases, he 
was called upon to prove his statements, the 
doing of which gave him the greatest satisfac- 
tion. He was fond of playing the school- 
master, and, one winter, a room was set apart 
in the house as a school-room, and Cornelius 
was constituted the teacher of a class of three 
— -his pupils being his two young sisters and 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 1 3 

youngest brother, John. This proved of much 
value to him, and, later, gave him the idea of 
becoming a teacher. 

Things went on in this way for some years, 
with schooling in winter and working on the 
farm in the summer. This work in the fields 
was a hard one ; but to it, no doubt, he was in- 
debted for his large frame, robust health, and 
strong constitution. 

He did not, at once, carry out his intention 
of becoming a teacher, for his first employ- 
ment was that of a clerk in a store in Dover. 
This gave him an idea of business and, added 
to his small stock of knowledge, was of much 
value to him. 

All the time, however, he felt that he 
must make a career, for himself, in the 
world. He had, at one period, a great am- 
bition to enter the navy as a midship- 
man ; and, although he received little or 
no encouragement from his family, he perse- 
vered in his endeavors, which culminated in 
his making a personal application, by letter, to 



14 C0RN3UUS G^ORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

the Secretary of the Navy. In due time a 
reply came under the ' 'frank" of the Secretary, 
but the effort was unsuccessful. It was a bitter 
disappointment to him, as he had set his heart 
upon it, having a great fondness for boats. At 
one time, he even tried to build a small pro- 
peller. This love for the sea never died out 
and was one of the strong affections of his life. 
In his brief vacations from his practice, in 
later years, he always turned his course toward 
Delaware and the sea, where the smell of the 
salt air and the view of the boundless ocean 
acted as a tonic for his entire system. 

Cornelius felt that the employment in the 
store was neither sufficiently lucrative nor in 
keeping with his ambition. And, when about 
nineteen years of age, he secured a position as 
teacher in a public school, in a neighborhood 
about ten miles from his home. He taught 
there for about a year and made his home in 
the family of a widow, living near the school- 
house, who tried to make the young teacher 
comfortable. He generally spent his Sundays 



CORNKLIUS GEORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 1 5 

at "Chipping Norton", the old family place of 
his mother's family, the Marims, in the society 
of his uncle, Charles Marim, a man of extra- 
ordinary conversational powers, which, with 
his wide reading and great intelligence, made 
him a most fascinating companion. 

Cornelius, during his year's teaching, accu- 
mulated a small sum of money. The training 
there was of the utmost value to him in after 
life, and inculcated a deep love for study and 
the improvement of the mind. In his reading, 
then and later, he cared little for fiction, 
except as regards that of the standard novel- 
ists whom he greatly admired; but, the bent 
of his mind was towards philosophy, logic, 
and psychology. He was of a very inquiring 
and restless mind, and used for a motto the 
words : "He that asketh much, learneth 
much." In his intercourse with his younger 
brothers and sisters in his youth, and with his 
children in after life, while he believed in 
wholesome recreation, he always discouraged 
what he considered frivolities, as he felt that 



1 6 CORNELIUS GEORGB COMBGYS, M. D. 

time was too valuable to be given to anything 
except to the earnest work of life. He set a 
goal for himself, to reach which he worked 
with an energy and persistence most remark- 
able. Opposition never daunted him, but only 
spurred him on to renewed efforts. He had a 
wish about this time to study medicine, but 
the way was not yet clear ; so the desire lay 
dormant until the time was ripe. 

The condition of his father's affairs was 
such that it became necessary for some of the 
remaining children to break off home ties and 
seek employment elsewhere. Cornelius was 
the eldest son then at home, and, feeling the 
necessity of taking some vital step, he de- 
termined, with the small stock of money he 
had saved from his salary as a teacher, to seek 
his fortune in the West. This was a great 
undertaking in those days, before the advent 
of railroads, when the only means of traveling 
was by the stage-coach, canal, and river. But 
the necessity seemed great, and he had heard 
of opportunities across the mountains. So, 



CORNEUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 1 7 

with many letters of commendation, secured 
by his father, he departed on his long jonrney. 
His objective point was Indianapolis, where he 
expected to find work in a civil-engineering 
corps, surveying the road to St. Louis, which 
was being done by the government. Having 
reached Pittsburg, after his journey across the 
mountains, he passed down the Ohio River on 
a boat to Louisville, where he landed, and 
proceeded to Indianapolis. 

Not finding the opening he expected, he 
entered, at first, into a business career; but, 
later, he became the cashier's clerk in the 
State Bank of Indiana. This led to his ob- 
taining a position as cashier of a bank in 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana. 

While in Indianapolis he made many 
friends and went a good deal into society. 
There he met Miss Rebecca Turner Tiffin, a 
daughter of the late Dr. Edward Tiffin, the 
first Governor of Ohio, an ex-Senator of the 
United States, and the holder of other offices 
of distinction and trust under the State and 



1 8 CORNELIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

general government. Miss Tiffin was a resi- 
dent of Chillicothe, Ohio, and was, at that 
time, visiting her relatives, the Porters, in 
Indianapolis. The resnlt of the acquaintance 
thus made, and the subsequent meetings dur- 
ing the winter season, was an engagement. 
On October 3, 1839, they were married in 
Chillicothe, and went to Lawrenceburg to live. 
Some time afterwards a business opening 
appeared which looked promising, and, being 
urged to enter into a partnership to conduct a 
large rlouring-mill, Cornelius Comegys gave 
up his position in the bank and entered that 
business. For a time he was eminently suc- 
cessful, and the business prospered beyond all 
expectations. But, through keen and un- 
worthy competition, as well as an over- 
production of flour, a failure resulted. The 
whole burden of paying the debts of the con- 
cern fell upon him, as his partner not only 
had nothing, but even diverted the funds 
placed in his hands to pay the creditors. This 
compelled him to pay many of the debts twice 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 1 9 

over, and the burden, until lie finally settled 
up all his obligations, rested upon his 
shoulders for years. 

This experience, though bitter at the time, 
proved to be the turning-point in his life. 
After much thought as to the future, he deter- 
mined to begin life afresh by taking up the 
study of medicine, a profession for which he 
had had an early predilection. In pursuance 
of this resolution he determined to leave L,aw- 
renceburg, the scene of his early married life, 
and the place where his two daughters were 
born, and removed to Philadelphia. He at 
once matriculated in the Medical Department 
of the University of Pennsylvania, and also 
placed himself, as a private pupil, under Dr. 
George Horner, Professor of Chemistry in the 
University. He also pursued other outside 
studies, and among them that of French, 
which he deemed necessary in order to read 
the medical works of the eminent French 
writers. His instructor in this was Delacroix, 
a French teacher of note, whose method of 



20 CORNKlylUS GEORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 

teaching he greatly admired. In March, 1848, 
he took his degree in medicine, and practiced 
for about a year in Philadelphia, during which 
time he made a number of very warm friends. 
Here was born his eldest son, Cornelius 
Marim Comegys, who died, in Cincinnati, at 
the age of twenty years. 

Although his prospects were good, he 
thought the field would be better in the West, 
and therefore removed to Cincinnati, where, 
by his successful treatment of the Asiatic 
Cholera, which visited the city in 1849, ne 
gained a large practice. This was the second 
visitation of that awful scourge. It broke out 
in April of that year. It came by way of 
New Orleans, and, in a consultation, he prob- 
ably saw the first case. The patient was a 
German immigrant who had just arrived in 
the city from New Orleans. The ravages of 
the cholera lasted until about the middle of 
August, and Dr. Comegys distinguished him- 
self by his untiring efforts and skill among 
his patients — one of whom was his own wife. 



CORNKlvIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 21 

Being thoroughly ambitious to be fully 
equipped for the practice of his profession, and 
feeling the need of a wider clinical study, he 
went abroad, in 185 1, to spend a year in the 
medical schools and hospitals of London and 
Paris. In the former, his especial instruction 
was under the eminent medical staff of Guy's 
Hospital ; and, in the latter, his preceptor was 
Professor J. M. Charcot, chief of the clinical 
staff of La Charite Hospital, and afterwards 
the distinguished writer on "Nervous Dis- 
eases" and "Diseases of the Spinal Cord." 
The courses of instruction, and the constant 
contact with the eminent physicians and sur- 
geons abroad, greatly broadened the scope of 
his knowledge, and enabled him to introduce 
a number of new features into the medical 
schools and hospitals at home. 

Upon returning to Cincinnati, in 1852, Dr. 
Comegys gave a course of lectures on Anatomy 
in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
He then joined in the organization of the 
Miami Medical College, as professor of the 



22 CORNELIUS GKORGK COM3GYS, M. D. 

Institutes of Medicine, and continued with the 
college until its fusion with the Ohio Medical 
College in 1857. ^ n tn ^ s ne was allotted the 
same chair, and, in addition, that of clinical 
teacher on the medical staff of the Cincinnati 
Hospital, which, at that time, was under the 
control of the Medical College of Ohio. He 
resigned his college duties in 1865, but re- 
tained his position on the staff of the Hospital 
to the close of his life, and during the last 
seven or eight years of that time was presi- 
dent of the staff. 

He was one of the founders of the Academy 
of Medicine, and twice served as its president. 
He was a member of the old Medico-Chirurgi- 
cal Society, and of the Cincinnati Medical So- 
ciety ; of the American Medical Association ; 
of the Mississippi Valley Medical Associa- 
tion ; honorary member of the Philadelphia 
College of Physicians ; of the Delaware State 
Medical Society ; of the Western Reserve 
Historical Society of Ohio ; of the Ohio His- 
torical and Philosophical Society ; the Trinity 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 23 

Historical Societ}^ of Texas ; of the Cincinnati 
Literary Club ; and of a number of other like 
organizations. 

Dr. Comegys was endowed with a very 
liberal mind, and his residence abroad im- 
proved his natural faculties and aroused a 
desire to see the growth and development of 
Cincinnati. As a good citizen he believed 
it a vital duty to concentrate his energies 
in some particular line of work for the prog- 
ress of the city ; and, as he had the utmost 
respect for learning, he thought its avenues 
should be open to all. While still a young 
practitioner with a large family, he still 
found time, in spite of the duties and anx- 
ieties of his profession, to take an active 
interest in educational matters. As a mem- 
ber of the School Board, to which he was 
elected on April 2, 1855, from the 14th 
Ward, he visited the schools frequently, 
formed acquaintances with the teachers, and 
watched the progress of the scholars. He 
was instrumental in starting a night High 



24 C0RN3UUS G30RGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

School for the instruction of young business 
men, who were thus enabled to complete 
their interrupted education. Many of the 
successful business men of to-day attended 
that school. As chairman of the Public 
Library Committee, he saw the possibilities 
of the library as a factor in education, and 
the necessity for a larger structure and 
better care of the books to prevent their 
destruction. By joining forces with the 
Mechanics' Institute, which had a suitable 
building and was better equipped, he thought 
the future of the library would be assured. 
An opportunity for this having occurred, 
he struggled with might and main against 
indifference, procrastination, and strong op- 
position of many of his fellow-members in 
the matter. Often discouraged, but never 
abating one jot of his zeal, he persisted in 
his work and at length saw his labors 
crowned with success and the foundation 
laid for the splendidly equipped Public 
Library of to-day. 



CORNEUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 25 

The story, however, is best told in the 
account given by the Cincinnati Commercial * 
of the formal opening of the new building 
of the Public Library on Wednesday, Febru- 
ary 25, 1874. Among the speakers of that 
occasion was Rev. Thomas Vickers, the Li- 
brarian at that time. 

Mr. Vickers first sketches the origin and 
progress of the Library, resulting in the mag- 
nificent new structure, and says that "many 
have contributed to the glorious work." 
"The inception," he continues, "was in 1854, 
at which time a tax of one-tenth of a mill 
was on the tax duplicate for purchase of 
books by Commissioners of Common Schools 
for Township libraries. This resulted in 
sixteen small libraries exactly alike, one for 
each Ward (16). This being undesirable, the 
Board of Education made an arrangement to 
unite them into one. This was done in 
1855, and they were put into a building of 
the Board on Longworth Street. The Board 

* Of February 26, 1874. 



\l 



26 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

had no means to purchase a lot for a build- 
ing and Messrs. French, Comegys, and Rice 
were appointed the first Libra^ Committee. 

During November and December, ineffec- 
tual efforts were made by the Librarian, Mr. 
John D. Caldwell, and Dr. Comeg}^, to pro- 
vide rooms for the School Board and Library 
in the Cincinnati College Building. In 
January, 1856, numerous localities were con- 
sidered and various offers made, but no de- 
cision was arrived at. Meanwhile, circulars 
were sent to men of culture in the various 
departments of learning, requesting their co- 
operation in the selection of books. Then 
came a relaxation of interest on the part of 
many, in the library, coupled with a deter- 
mined opposition, of some, to paying a sur- 
plus tax, for this purpose, to other portions 
of the state. 

Alarmed for the future of the Library, 
Dr. Comegys, now chairman of the Library 
Committee, summoned all his energies to 
the work of securing an independent library 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 27 

tax for this city. Printed petitions were dis- 
tributed, by the teachers and scholars of all 
the public schools, to be signed by the names 
of their parents and friends and were after- 
wards forwarded in great numbers to the 
Legislature. In March, 1856, Mr. Caldwell, 
the Librarian, was chosen one of the Di- 
rectors of the Mechanics' Institute. At the 
very first meeting of that Board he se- 
cured the appointment of a committee, viz : 
President Wilstach, Mr. Bruce, and Mr. 
Burke, to confer with President King, Dr. 
Comegys, and A. S. Sullivan, Committee of 
the School Board, relative to uniting the 
Public and Mechanics' Institute Libraries 
and furnishiug a Session Hall and School 
Board office in the Mechanics' Institute. 

A proposition was made, on the part of 
the officers of the Mechanics' Institute, and 
on May 5, 1856, the Library Committee 
agreed to accept it, the Public Library fur- 
nishing 2,400 volumes and the Mechanics' 
Institute furnishing 4,000 volumes — many of 



28 CORN3UUS G30RGK COMBGYS, M. D. 

them invaluable books — the nucleus of all 
the pioneer libraries gathered together in 
the progress of a town or city. 

The committee, through Dr. Comegys, con- 
gratulated the School Board and the public 
that they had procured all these facilities — 
sure to be a great central attraction, calcu- 
lated to elevate the intellectual and moral 
character of the people — all for $600 a year, 
that being the interest on city bonds to the 
amount of $10,000, to be transferred to the 
Institute and held until both parties agreed 
to withdraw from the contract, when the 
bonds would be returned. 

The Committee, though convinced of the 
importance of this advance step in behalf of 
the people, met with an unexpected rebuff 
from the School Board. On a vote to close 
the contract and arrange for the use of the 
building, the vote was — ayes, 10 ; nays, 16. 

The Library Committee, not disheartened, 
in two weeks after renewed the proposition. 
It was discussed and laid over for one week. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 29 

but no action was taken until June 9. 
The School Board agreed to avail itself of 
the privilege of the amended law to tax the 
people of Cincinnati, for library purposes, 
one-tenth of a mill. 

On the 1 6th of June — a memorable day — 
Dr. Comegys visited, personally, the major- 
ity of the members of the School Board to 
urge their attendance that evening. Amid 
much excitement the contract with the 
Mechanics' Institute was ordered by — ayes, 
20 ; nays, 6. Those who voted in the nega- 
tive were : Messrs. Armstrong, Beattie, Pow- 
ers, Rowekamp, Speer, and President King. 

This was a technical victory. The project 
favored by the Chairman of the Library Com- 
mittee was adopted, but the President of the 
Board announced that he would enter his 
written protest on the journal, and Mr. Speer 
gave notice that he would join him in the 
protest. 

On the 7th of July, Dr. Comegys urged 
that the City Council approve the contract 



30 CORNKUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

and add the City instead of the School Board. 
This matter received attention in the City 
Council, but the Law Committee disposed 
of it there by their report that the city bonds 
designed to be used in the contract were en- 
tirely at the disposal of the School Board. 
It thus became the duty of the School Board 
to conclude the contract. It was done, in 
spite of the most determined struggle on the 
part of those who were opposed to it. On 
July 31, 1856, it was signed on the part of 
the School Board by Dr. Comegys, A. S. 
Sullivan, and Lyman Harding, the president 
having, at his request, been excused from this 
duty. 

This action was really the crossing of the 
Rubicon for the Public Library. It gave it 
an importance which it probably would not 
otherwise have obtained ; and those to whose 
untiring energy the action was due ought 
to be gratefully remembered to-day. It is a 
pleasing reflection that, as a consequence of 
the occupancy of the Mechanics' Institute 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 3 1 

Building, the cause of education received a 
new impulse. A night high school was es- 
tablished with eminent success in Greenwood 
Hall, and an art gallery, which, under the 
fostering care of the then president of the 
School Board, has grown into the McMicken 
School of Design, the Art Department of 
the University of Cincinnati. Nor is it 
less pleasant to remember that, since that 
time, the Mechanics' Institute has become 
entirely free from debt, has paid back the 
$10,000 to the Board of Education, and is 
otherwise now able to help its former friends 
and benefactors. From this point the Library 
may really be considered as firmly estab- 
lished." * * * * 

Dr. Comegys' experience as a member of 
the School Board was, however, only intro- 
ductory to his work in the municipal boards, 
and to an educational one of greater magni- 
tude. He served for a short time in the 
City Council and also a term in the Board 
of Aldermen. He was elected a trustee of 



32 CORNELIUS GKORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

the City Council, from the 15th Ward, at 
an election held on August 21, 1869, to fill 
the vacancy caused by the resignation of 
T. F. Baker. He was elected to the Board 
of Aldermen, from the 15th Ward, on April 
4, 1870. His services in both boards were 
always in the way of reform and economy 
in the municipal government ; and he threw 
himself into every important measure with 
all the energy of his nature. The ulterior 
object which he had in view in entering 
the City Council was to pave the way 
for carrying out the bequest of Charles 
McMicken in the establishing, by means 
of a city charter, of the University of Cin- 
cinnati. 

This institution is indebted for its existence 
to the generosity of Charles McMicken, who, 
at his death, in 1858, left his large fortune to 
the City of Cincinnati to found an institution 
of learning in which students of both sexes 
should receive, without cost, the benefits of a 
sound, thorough, and practical education, sim- 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 33 

ilar to that taught in the colleges and univer- 
sities of the country. 

The first steps to the carrying out of this 
bequest was the action by which Rufus King, 
James Wilson, Miles Greenwood, Dr. C. G. 
Comegys, Henry F. Handy, and G. B. Hollis- 
ter, Directors of the McMicken University, 
elected by the City Council, met in the Coun- 
cil Chamber on Friday, December 30, 1859, 
and organized. 

The income of the munificent gift and en- 
dowment, however, was insufficient to estab- 
lish, at once, the University. A large amount 
of the real estate in Louisiana was lost, owing 
to the fact that that state refused to recognize 
the validity of bequests of real estate to insti- 
tutions not located within her borders. Be- 
sides, there were many expenses and charges 
upon the estate, so that for years the whole 
income was devoted to rebuilding and repair- 
ing the stores, ware-houses, and dwellings, 
and the payment of the legacies and annuities 
to the heirs of McMicken. It was not until 



34 CORNKWUS GKORG3 COMKGYS, M. D. 

1867 that enougli funds were accumulated for 
educational purposes, and the McMicken 
School of Art and Design was started. This 
was very successful ; but, in order to relieve 
the Trustees of an expense of $2,500 a year, 
it was deemed advisable to transfer the school 
to the Art Museum Association. The money 
on hand being still too small for the mainte- 
nance of an Academic Department, the Trus- 
tees determined to apply, through the City 
Council, for a charter of the University of 
Cincinnati which would authorize a consolida- 
tion of all the other educational funds with 
that of the McMicken estate and a subven- 
tion of one-tenth of a mill tax on the grand 
levy. 

Dr. Comegys was one of the most ardent 
supporters of this measure, and deemed it of 
the utmost importance that there should be 
some one in the City Council friendly to it, 
and who would strongly advocate it. A 
vacancy occurring in the City Council by the 
resignation of the member from his own ward, 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 35 

and deeming that his duty lay in seizing this 
opportunity to further the interests of the 
University at this most critical time, he re- 
signed his position as a Trustee and became a 
candidate for the City Council. He was 
elected at a special election held on August 
21, 1869 — as previously mentioned. 

The Legislature having passed enabling 
laws, the charter was granted, in 1870, by the 
City Council. Through the Board of Educa- 
tion, one- tenth of a mill tax was also granted. 
The income of the McMicken estate was 
transferred by the old board to the new board 
of directors of the University of Cincinnati, 
which organized on December 26, 1870. 

Dr. Comegys' absence from the University 
was only temporary, for, in 1873, his name 
appeared among the list of the Board of 
Directors of the University of Cincinnati, at a 
time when plans were being made for the 
organization of the Academic Department. 
From this time he served continuously until 
his death, on February 10, 1896,— having 



36 CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 

served as tlie President of the Board of Direc- 
tors from June 16, 1890, until that time. 

The Academic Department of the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati was opened for courses of 
study, under professors engaged from leading 
eastern colleges, in October, 1874, — although 
a preliminary start had been made, the }^ear 
before, by afternoon classes at Woodward 
High School, under the instruction of several 
of the teachers of that school. It was not, 
however, until September, 1875, that the new 
University Building, in the course of erection 
on the homestead property of Charles 
McMicken, was ready for occupancy. In its 
own building, with an enlarged corps of 
teachers and a steadily increasing yearly 
matriculation of students, the Academic De- 
partment passed through the crucial period of 
its existence. For twenty years the infant 
college grew until it waxed strong enough to 
throw off its swaddling clothes and emerge 
from its dingy surroundings below the hills to 
the lofty elevation in Burnet Woods — high 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 37 

above the beautiful Millcreek Valley. In the 
fall of 1895, a new generation of students 
opened the splendid, moderiily equipped Mc- 
Micken Hall. Since that time, the munifi- 
cence of two wealthy citizens has provided the 
two wings of the main building — Hanna Hall 
(opened in 1897), and Cunningham Hall (now 
in the course of erection) — thus completing 
the group of buildings as designed. Another 
noble-hearted citizen, Mr. Asa Van Wormer, 
has given the sum of sixty thousand dollars 
to be used for the erection of a library build- 
ing, for which, as a nucleus of a library, Mr. 
William A. Proctor has bought and donated 
"The Robert Clarke Library" — a rare and 
valuable collection ; Mr. Robert Clarke also 
has donated $1,000 worth of books. 

It was for this development that Dr. Come- 
gys worked from his first connection as direc- 
tor of the McMicken University, from its or- 
ganization on December 30, 1859, to the time 
of his death on February 10, 1896, — a period 
covering nearly one-half of his life — and he 



38 CORNKIJUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

lived to see the fruits of his labor. The 
struggles aud vicissitudes of the University 
were many, but the duties of the Board of 
Directors found no more faithful servant. 
Although a busy man in a. profession in 
which he could not call his time his own, he 
never failed in his attendance at board or 
committee meetings, unless prevented by sick- 
ness, absence from the city, or the impera- 
tive calls incident to his profession. 

His ideals were very high, and it was his 
earnest desire to unite all the higher institu- 
tions of learning in the city with the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati — with departments of law, 
medicine, art, and music. His annual reports 
show this, and in his last report, January i, 
1895, under the heading of — "An Alliance of 
other Schools in our City under the Insignia 
of the University of Cincinnati," — he says : 

"This subject has frequently been alluded 
to in the Annual Reports of the Universit}^ 
and much has been accomplished and much 
more can be done, and we hope the public feel- 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 39 

ing on this matter will assume a potent form. 
The value of treaties, leagues, and alliances 
for definite objects which could not be effected 
individually, is attested by all history, notably 
in our time by the confederation of the Ger- 
man States that form the German Empire, 
and the tripartite treaty of Germany, Italy, 
and Austria ; in the business world, by the 
combination of lines of railroads to form trans- 
portation systems ; in the educational world, 
the examples of the union of twenty-three col- 
leges under the insignia of the Oxford Uni- 
versity, also of the Cambridge University, in 
England. These colleges have separate 
boards of governors, endowments, faculties, 
and arrangement of studies. Is it not the 
true policy for Cincinnati to consolidate her 
institutions of learning, so as to give our Uni- 
versity a rank with the greatest in our 
country? This is not a doubtful question. 
We have at this moment students in arts and 
sciences, law, medicine, art, and music, aggre- 
gating two thousand five hundred, and before 



4-0 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

the end of the century the number will have 
increased to three thousand. This is an enor- 
mous number, and will place our University 
in the front rank with the great institutions 
of civilization." 

Dr. Comegys worked to create all of these 
departments and made many personal efforts. 
He was especially sanguine of the early crea- 
tion of a Medical Department by effecting a 
union with the Medical College of Ohio. 
Many obstacles intervened and many meet- 
ings of committees were held. During his 
last illness, just before taking to his bed, and 
when scarcely able to sit up, he called a meet- 
ing of the joint committees from the Univer- 
sity Board and from the Medical College of 
Ohio. To his deep disappointment no agree- 
ment for the union was consummated. 
Within a few weeks he died, and, shortly 
after, the work for which he had labored so 
earnestly, and upon which he had set his 
heart, was completed, and the establishment 
of the Medical Department was accomplished. 



CORNKUUS GKORGK COMBGYS, M. D. 4 1 

The same year saw the formation of a new 
Law Department, which proved a marked suc- 
cess. Later, a consolidation was effected with 
the "Law School of the Cincinnati College," 
an old and well-known institution, by which 
the latter was merged into the Law Depart- 
ment of the University of Cincinnati. 

Among the affiliated schools are : The Clin- 
ical and Pathological School of the Cincinnati 
Hospital, and the Ohio College of Dental Sur- 
gery. So that the seed that was planted bore 
fruit. 

During the long services of Dr. Comegys 
on the Board of Trustees of the University 
he was associated with many of the most 
distinguished professional and business men 
of Cincinnati, who freely gave of their time 
and strength for this most noble work. A 
strong constitution and a great capacity for 
work enabled him to survive all of the elder 
and earlier members of the Board, and his 
advanced age found him working with the 
enthusiasm and energy of a young man. 



42 CORNKlylUS GKORGK COMKGYS. M. D. 

He died in the harness, as he wished to do, 
with almost his last thoughts and efforts up- 
on the carrying out of this great trust. He 
laid the corner-stone of McMicken Hall in 
Burnet Woods, on September 22, 1894, but 
the stones which he placed in the foundation 
of the University of Cincinnati were laid 
long before this and will be as lasting as 
the institution itself. 

In his profession Dr. Comegys was an 
ardent and indefatigable worker, and his 
practice was very large and extensive. His 
patients embraced all classes of people, high 
and low, rich and poor. He discriminated 
against none, and gave the same attention 
to those who could afford to pay little or 
nothing as to those who were in affluent 
circumstances. He never refused a call and 
day and night, as long as he was able to re- 
spond, he was at the service of his patients. 
Like most physicians he did much for 
charity and often for those who could have 
paid for his services, if they would. In the 






CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 43 

sick-rooin he was tender and sympathetic, 
and in many families he was the confidential 
friend and adviser, as well as the physician. 
He often assisted those whose needs became 
known in this way, and exerted his influ- 
ence in obtaining situations for the unem- 
ployed parents or children. The number of 
the many acts of kindness and help per- 
formed in this way will never become known 
as he never cared to talk of these things, 
and confidences reposed in him were never 
betrayed — not even to his own family. 

He associated himself with the Medical 
Colleges and Hospital almost at the begin- 
ning of his career, lecturing and giving bed- 
side instruction almost daily during the 
winter courses. His days were busy ones. 
He started out, with his horse and buggy, 
immediately after breakfast, and was occupied 
during the entire day and early evening in 
lecturing, visiting patients, seeing them at 
his office, and in performing his other duties 
— only going home for his meals. Until 



44 CORNELIUS GEORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 

latter years and before rapid transit had im- 
pelled the movement toward the suburbs, 
the city proper was the principal field of his 
operations. His practice, however, led him, 
even at that time, to many country places, 
within a radius of five miles from the center 
of the city, which then could only be reached 
by driving. His services as a consulting 
physician were often in demand in neighbor- 
ing cities and states, necessitating many rail- 
road trips. Consultations at home were fre- 
quent and, in addition, his office practice 
was large. He was also, for years, one of 
the medical examiners for the local office of 
one of the largest insurance companies of 
New York. 

He was much interested in several of the 
medical associations and especially the Amer- 
ican Medical Association, whose meetings he 
generally attended. The development of the 
journal of that association appealed to him 
greatly and he devoted much thought to 
plans for its enlargement and believed that, 



M 



CORNEUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 45 

as a national journal, its location should be 
at the national capital, Washington. 

He had the utmost love and veneration 
for his profession, and believed its capacity 
for doing good and for promoting the bodily 
and mental health of the people to be bound- 
less. He thought a healthy body was a pre- 
requisite for a sound mind ; and he believed 
it to be within the power of the government, 
through the medical profession, to bring 
about this condition. He deemed the Cabinet 
incomplete without medical representation, 
and urged the American Medical Associa- 
tion to use its influence to establish a " De- 
partment of Public Health" and the appoint- 
ment of a " Secretary of Public Health." 
Accordingly, a resolution was adopted by 
the Association that a committee be ap- 
pointed to petition Congress to create a 
Cabinet Officer to be known as "Medical 
Secretary of Public Health." 

Dr. Comegys was the chairman of the 
committee, prepared the petition himself, and 



46 CORNELIUS G^ORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

sent it to the various members of the large 
committee, scattered over the country, for 
their signatures. In his printed circular he 
spoke of the vital importance, for the health 
of the nation, of establishing hygienic meas- 
ures for the prevention of disease and the 
spreading of pestilence. He believed that 
the people should be enlightened in sani- 
tary ways of living, and that, under a single 
department and head, there should be united 
all influences which might act upon the 
physical and mental health of the people. 
Instead of separate organizations of State 
Boards of Health, the Signal Service, the 
medical departments of the Army, Navy, and 
Marine Service, they should, with all their 
statistical and general work, be united under 
a broader and more comprehensive system 
in which the entire medical profession of the 
country was involved. 

He spent much time and labor upon this 
matter and made several trips to Washing- 
ton in its behalf. He personally interested 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 47 

a number of members of Congress in it and 
urged other members of the large and repre- 
sentative committee of the American Medical 
Association to use their influence for the 
favorable consideration of the petition. Such 
an undertaking naturally aroused much at- 
tention, and, while many of the congres- 
sional committee, to which it was referred, 
gave it a favorable hearing, others showed 
indifference and even actual opposition. Dr. 
Comegys endeavored to overcome this hos- 
tility and was sanguine of the ultimate suc- 
cess of the petition. His death, however, 
cut short his work, and the object is still 
unaccomplished. 

Dr. Comegys was always a student. Not 
only did he devote himself to the study of 
the books and publications incident to his 
profession, but he was a wide reader on all 
subjects and especially those of a historical 
and philosophical nature. Psychology was a 
favorite study and much of his leisure time 
was devoted to it. In traveling, in place of 



48 CORNELIUS GEORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

the works of fiction usually carried by 
people, lie often carried with him a small 
work on psychology. Much time, and es- 
pecially on Sundays, was spent in the 
perusal of works on sacred history and in 
the study of the Bible. For many years he 
taught classes of adult Bible scholars in the 
Sunday School. The writings of St. Paul 
were an especial delight to him, and he read, 
exhaustively, the various histories of the 
life of that Apostle. 

He believed very much in popular lectures 
as a means of diffusing knowledge. During 
several winters he got up courses of evening 
lectures at St. Paul M. E. Church ; and, be- 
sides lecturing himself, he induced many of 
the professors and teachers in the Medical 
Colleges, the University of Cincinnati, and 
the High Schools — besides other prominent 
men of intellect in the city — to appear. One 
winter, he also got up a course of lectures in 
the class-rooms of the Chickering Institute, in 
which, for several afternoons of each week, 



CORNEUUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 49 

lectures were given by some of the able 
teachers of that school, as well as by other 
teachers and professional men. These were 
given at a moderate subscription price, to 
cover expenses, and were on popular subjects, 
such as history, botany, biology, astronomy, 
medicine, travel, etc. 

Some years before his death, he realized the 
close business relationship which was spring- 
ing up between this country and the countries 
of South America and the colonies of Spain in 
the West Indies, and believed that our young 
men should become familiar with the Spanish 
language. It was just being introduced into 
the University under an able instructor ; and, 
believing this to be a favorable opportunity to 
give others this advantage, he induced this 
gentleman to start a class in St. Paul M. E. 
Church, where, for a nominal sum, those who 
desired could pursue this important study. 

His work of instruction did not stop here, 
but was extended also to music, of which he 
was extremely fond. He regarded it as an 



50 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

important factor in chnrch worship, and be- 
lieved it should be better understood by the 
younger members of the congregation. Secur- 
ing the services of one of the best organists 
and choir-leaders in the city, he started, dur- 
ing one season, a class in music for the study 
of reading, by sight, various anthems and 
part songs. He was, afterwards, the chair- 
man of the music committee, and frequently 
attended the rehearsals of the choir, in which 
he took a great interest. He showed his ap- 
preciation by his words of encouragement and 
the offering of suggestions. He was espe- 
cially fond of chanting, which he believed to 
be very appropriate, and introduced the chant- 
ing of the Psalms into the Sunday service. 

In his efforts to place higher learning 
within the reach of the young (who had no 
better friend than he was), Dr. Comegys 
always bore in mind his own efforts to that 
end. Remembering his own early life as a 
farmer's boy, and his struggles to obtain more 
than an elementary education, he made an 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 5 1 

effort in his own native state, Delaware, to 
have an especial school established for the 
children of farmers to attend in the winter 
time, when their services were not needed for 
outdoor work. He wrote a pamphlet entitled 
"A Plea for a Farmer's Institute," which he 
circulated extensively, in the endeavor to have 
an institution founded which would raise the 
intelligence of the farmers to the highest 
degree compatible with their lives and sur- 
roundings. He believed this would not only 
benefit the men themselves, but have an ap- 
preciable effect upon the productiveness of the 
soil. The method of instruction should be by 
lectures chiefly, (though text-books were also 
to be used for reference and private study). 
This would not only raise the standard of 
knowledge, but would teach the chemical pro- 
cesses by which over-worked and barren lands 
might be rejuvenated and made to produce 
good crops. Instruction to farmers had been 
tried in Europe, with great success. An insti- 
tute, therefore, which would give the farmer 



52 CORNKlylUS GB0RG3 COM^GYS, M. D. 

more than the usual rudimentary amount 
of learning, and would enable him to possess 
an intelligent realization of the character and 
composition of the soil, would raise the stand- 
ard of farming so high as to be of the utmost 
value to the individual, as well as to the state 
in which he lived. Ways and means were 
discussed and the project shown to be thor- 
oughly feasible. 

On his own farm, Cherbourg, where he was 
born, he took a great interest in the cultiva- 
tion of the ornamental side of the place, in 
the keeping up of the hedges, and the plant- 
ing of trees and flowers in the lane and yard 
around the house. He believed this would 
not only add attractiveness to the home of the 
tenant, but would cultivate the senses and in- 
spire a love for the beautiful in nature. 

But he did not confine his attention on 
the subject of culture to any one class of 
persons, nor to the young. He strongly 
advocated higher culture among maturer 
minds and believed that a necessity existed, 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 53 

in his own city, for the formation of a society 
for that purpose. On March 29, 1889, ne 
delivered an address before the Historical 
and Philosophical Society in which he took 
for his subject, "A Plea for an Institute." 
He spoke of the Royal Society, of London, 
the Institute of France, at Paris, and other 
similar societies. He held up the latter as 
a model and urged the formation of a society 
in this city to be known as the "Institute of 
Cincinnati." This address was afterwards 
printed in pamphlet form for distribution. 

Dr. Comegys was an author, and a con- 
tributor to the medical journals. His largest 
work was the translation, from the French, 
of the "History of Medicine," by Renouard 
— a great and laborious undertaking. This 
book, which was published in 1855, brought 
him considerable fame, but is now, unfortu- 
nately, out of print. He sometimes, in later 
years, thought of revising the book for another 
edition, but the tax upon his time and strength 
precluded this. In 1 881, he translated a work 



54 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

on the "Diseases of the Spinal Cord," by 
Prof. J. M. Charcot, his former instructor at 
Paris and who had afterwards achieved great 
fame. His medical papers were numerous, 
and among them were : " Conservative Value 
of Fever and Inflammation" — published in 
the transactions of the Cincinnati Medico- 
Chirurgical Society, 1849; "Etiology and 
Treatment of Phthisis Pulmonalis" — pub- 
lished in the transactions of the Ohio Medical 
Society, 1854; "The Pathology and Treat- 
ment of Asiatic Cholera," 1866, — published 
in Blackman and Parvin's "Cincinnati Medical 
Journal" ; an address before the Alumnal 
Society of the University of Pennsylvania, in 
1875, — published by the society. In this 
address he eulogized Prof. George B. Wood ; 
he also maintained that a healthy brain is 
necessary to a free will. He spoke of the 
necessity of a reform in medical education in 
the line of entrance examinations and of a 
longer period of instruction, especially for 
clinical study and laboratory work. He pro- 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 55 

posed, at the same time, the encouragement 
of the practice, by physicians, of forensic 
medicine, which, he argued, would secure a 
higher form of judicial decisions and serve 
to advance the medical profession to higher 
rank and usefulness in the state. 

He also strongly advocated and wrote a 
paper on the value of hot baths in febrile 
and inflammatory affections. He had at first 
started with cold baths ; and, concerning this, 
Dr. H. C. Wood, editor of the Philadelphia 
"Medical Times," after repeated trials said (in 
his journal in 1877) : "It must be granted to 
Dr. Comegys the discovery of the most life- 
saving method in modern therapeutics." He, 
however, found hot baths more efficacious and 
less distressing to the patient.* 

But this enumeration is small and repre- 
sents, in a very incomplete manner, his 
medical writings. He was, also, a ready and 
prolific writer on many subjects — including 

* See Watson's "Physicians and Surgeons of America," 
pp. 184-5. 



56 CORNELIUS GK0RG3 COMEGYS, M. D. 

editorial work. At trie outset of his career 
in Cincinnati, he counted among his friends 
and patients the Rev. Dr. Simpson (later 
Bishop Simpson of the M. E. Church), 
editor of the " Western Christian Advocate," 
who recognized the abilities of the young 
practitioner and made him the assistant editor 
of that paper. When Dr. Comegys went 
abroad in 1851, he was its European corre- 
spondent and wrote many letters which 
appeared in its columns. He also wrote 
foreign letters to the "Ladies' Repository." 
Dr. Comegys was a trustee of Longview 
Asylum for the Insane for three years 
(1862-5), an d did much towards the building 
up of that institution. His visits were fre- 
quent and he spent considerable time in the 
study of the phenomena of mental and nervous 
diseases, and believed that there was, at that 
place, a good field for clinical teaching. His 
familiarity with these diseases, and his study 
of the brain, led to his being frequently 
called as an expert witness in the trial of 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 57 

cases in court involving the mental capacity 
of testators. 

During the Civil War he was greatly inter- 
ested in the noble work of the Sanitary Com- 
mission, and did much actively in its behalf. 
After the battle at Ft. Donelson, he had 
charge of the medical department of a hospital 
relief steamboat which was sent to Pittsburg 
Landing to bring back the wounded from the 
battlefield. As a relic of that expedition he 
brought home with him a musket found 
beside the dead body of a Confederate soldier. 

Dr. Comegys was a member of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, which he joined early 
in life, and in which he took the liveliest and 
most active interest for nearly sixty years. 
He was not only a teacher of medicine, but 
also of religion. He was a close student of 
the Bible, and gave instruction in it to large 
and intelligent adult classes in the Sunday 
School. His last membership, which covered 
many years, was in St. Paul M. E. Church, of 
which church he was a member of the Official 
Board. 



58 CORNELIUS GKORG3 COMEGYS, M. D. 

The appreciation in which Dr. Comegys 
was held by his fellow-citizens, and the kindly 
things which were said of him by the press 
after his death, cannot be detailed here. It 
may not be out of place, however, to mention 
one or two, which were especially worthy of 
note, in this connection, and which were indic- 
ative of the estimate given to his character. 
Here is one : 

"Dr. Comegys, whose death was reported 
yesterday morning, was one of the strong 
men of the city. Belonging to a profession 
which taxes the energies of men beyond any 
other, he yet found time — only busy men can 
tell how — to devote a great deal of attention to 
public affairs. As a member of Council, he 
was faithful in attendance, controlled always 
by judgment, and animated by the purest 
motives. He was not inspired by political 
ambition. He apparently thought that a citi- 
zen owed service to the city, and that no citi- 
zen could be a good citizen who did not do his 
part in discharging such service. Would 
there were more like him ! 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 59 

"In affairs of the University lie ever took 
a deep interest. He was a member of the 
Board of Trustees from the beginning, we 
believe, and he watched the slow growth of 
the institution, through hard times and dis- 
couraging conditions, with a hope and zeal 
that never faltered. As a physician he saw 
many a helpless child grow into vigorous 
youth. So watched he over the growth and 
development of this University, giving it con- 
stant and unwearied attention. 

"He was a great physician, but the practice 
of medicine does not involve the public work 
that the law does ; and it is only as a public 
spirited citizen that a journal can properly 
and fully speak of him. Men growl about 
the administration of a city government. 
They growl everywhere. Here was a man 
who took off his coat and went to work. He 
received no pay for any of the valuable time 
and more valuable counsel he gave. He con- 
tributed his best judgment, his best thought 
to the city. Whether as Councilman or mem- 



60 CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 

ber of the School Board, he devoted to the city 
the painstaking care that he would have used 
in his own private business affairs. He held 
to a high standard of honor, and he exacted 
regard for that standard from others. 

"We say again, would that there were more 
like him in this city ! May men be found 
who, inspired by his example, will come to 
realize that office-holding is a duty, and that 
no man has the right to complain who does 
not himself try to make better the public 
service of the city. Many a man refuses to 
run for office whose work is not half as exact- 
ing as was that of Dr. Comegys — and he went 
into the harness early in life, nor put it off 
even when creeping age must have made his 
work hard. 

"He was a good and useful citizen. Let 
some one come forward to take his place."* 

We venture, also, to quote a paragraph 
from another journal : 

* The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, February 11, 1896. 
Editorial— -"Dr. Comegys and Public Spirit." 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 6 1 

"Though Dr. Cornegys had been living for 
nearly ten years on what aged people are 
sometimes disposed to call "borrowed time," 
all the period beyond the allotted three score 
and ten being so termed, still in the sense of 
youthful feeling, with a keen interest in cur- 
rent events and a determination to keep 
abreast of the times, possibly a little in ad- 
vance, he was a young man. To the mental 
and physical infirmities of a burden of years 
he was a comparative stranger. He was a 
broad man in that no new science relating to 
his or any of the learned professions failed to 
at once rivet his attention. Something of the 
calibre and spirit of the man was shown in the 
fact that up to his fatal illness he was as 
actively engaged in the exacting duties of his 
laborious profession as when he was thirty or 
forty years younger." * 

Cincinnati has always been noted for the 
number of her distinguished physicians and 

* The Cincinnati Times-Star, February 10, 1396. "NOTE 
and Comment." 



62 CORNELIUS GKORGK COM^GYS, M. D. 

surgeons, and the standard is likely to be 
maintained for many years to come. In an 
address on "Medicine and Surgery in the 
Queen City," delivered at the Unity Club on 
March 25, 1896, Dr. James T. Whittaker, one 
of the brightest and best cultured men in his 
profession, says : "No city in the country 
has ever surpassed us in medicine. Perhaps 
there may have been times when a better 
sermon could be heard, or a higher legal opin- 
ion obtained in New York, or some other 
Eastern city, but there never was a time when 
a diagnosis of a disease could be better made, 
or an operation be better done elsewhere than 
here." 

During his account of the progress of medi- 
cine and surgery from earliest Cincinnati to 
the present day, Dr. Whittaker sketches the 
lives of Drs. Daniel Drake, George C. Black- 
man, James Graham, W. W. Dawson, and 
Cornelius G. Comegys — with occasional refer- 
ences to many other noted men of the profes- 
sion. Much of the address, however, must 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 63 

have been written during the lifetime of Dr. 
Comegys, for, in his account of the life of Dr. 
Dawson, he speaks of Dr. Comegys as the last 
survivor in the old galaxy of Drs. Menden- 
hall, Wood, and Comegys, who, as colleagues 
of Dr. Dawson, taught in the Medical Insti- 
tute of Cincinnati in 185 1. 

But he continues : "Dr. Comegys, to whom 
I have alluded as the last survivor, has just 
died. He was the most beloved man in our 
profession, both in and out of it. Comegys 
was a big, broad man, who had climbed, by 
hard work, to a point of broad survey. He 
had great ambition, and was busy with 
schemes day and night to such a degree as to 
be regarded almost as a dreamer. But his 
ideas ran always onward and upward, and he 
kept his eyes so constantly fixed upon the 
goal as to be unmindful of the obstacles in his 
way. Some of his practical friends considered 
him visionary. He did really see visions, but 
always of things more perfect and pure than 
those by whom he was surrounded. Comegys 



64 CORNKIvIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

was an embodiment of integrity, purity, and 
truth. Like Schiller, he believed that every 
man has opened out before him two courses ; 
one leads to the ideal, the other to death. But 
Comegys could never see anything but the 
course toward the ideal. By hard work and 
much self-sacrifice he made himself a fine 
scholar. And all his life he strained his abil- 
ities to their utmost capacity in the service of 
his fellow-men. 

"Hear him as he marks out the career of 
the physician : 'We march with armies to 
care for the footsore and fevered soldier, and 
follow him, too, through the thickest of the 
fire, not to aid destruction in her work, but 
to staunch the wounds she makes. It is 
not the trumpet call, nor the roar of battle 
that arouses our activity in the great con- 
flict ; but the cries of the wounded and dying 
— the appalling ruin of the field that inspires 
our enthusiasm amidst the dark splendor of 
war. The call of the distressed by night 
and day incites our energies and supports 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 65 

our weariness. Not only in crowded places, 
where the ways are easy, but in sparsely 
settled regions, amidst the sharp vicissitudes 
of the seasons, by lonely paths, or in moun- 
tain defiles, unmindful of the tempest, we 
plod our weary way, the perturbations of 
our anxious hearts keeping time with the 
fret of the storm. On every hand, infirmity, 
sickness, helplessness, fearful casualties, 
bereavement, despair, death ; hoping to 
strengthen, hoping to assuage or to avert, 
our days are occupied ; sustaining the hopes, 
the agonies, the distresses of society, our 
responsibilities are momentous, our burdens 
are often too heavy to bear.' 

"Hear him again as he pleads for the pro- 
tection of the people against the frauds and 
wickedness of the quack : ' When the human 
mechanism becomes deranged, and a great 
contest is set up between the forces of 
disease and the vital forces, who shall 
attempt to interfere? The man who has made 
these laws a study, who knows the opera- 



66 CORNKWUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D, 

tions of tlieir final causes, who comprehends 
as far as science has shed light upon the 
subject, their special and general operations? 
Or the man who is ignorant of the entire 
mechanism, and, laying aside all such labor 
and investigation, attempts to rescue the 
suffering system by remedies which, accord- 
ing to his gross views, have been successful 
in a similar case? An irreparable injury, 
or even death itself may be the result of 
this ignorant interference, and what atone- 
ment then does the prosecution of an irre- 
sponsible man afford ?' 

" 'In regard to medicine, everyone,' he con- 
tinues, 'must look out for himself. With 
the same indifference, we ought not to have 
a standard of weights and measures, nor a 
fixed value of coin, nor protection against 
issues of paper money. Let every one take 
care of himself. No man can assume to be 
a respectable minister of the Gospel without 
the license of a church organization ; no 
man can practice law without an approved 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 67 

examination before a conrt ; no man can 
teach without a certificate of qualification ; 
no man can sell goods or peddle goods, or 
drive a dray or a cab, or an express wagon, 
without registering and a license. The pub- 
lic is defended from the impositions of the 
hackney coachman, but not from the quack 
doctor and patent-medicine vender. No man 
is believed to be a carpenter, or a machinist, 
or a master in any other profession, unless 
he has served an apprenticeship to it. 
Then why, I ask, in the name of honesty 
and civilization, when we come to consider 
the human frame, the most wonderful struc- 
ture of God, the divine idea of mechanism, 
in whose structure a thousand wonderful 
and complicated actions are in play, many 
of whose laws, after more than two thousand 
years of investigation, are still unknown, 
— why, I say, do our governments surrender 
this beautiful structure to be prostituted to 
the mercenary practices of charlatans?' 
"A large part of his life was spent in an 



68 CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 

appeal for legislation to improve our sanitary 
conditions and to subdue the curse of quack- 
ery. He read, lie plead, he labored for the 
creation of a Minister of Health in the 
Cabinet Department at Washington. He had 
personal interviews with the President,* and 
it is to the credit of the strong, good man who 
now occupies this chair that he listened to 
him with interest, and was not unmoved by 
his argument. But it was thought that the 
time was not ripe. It certainly must come 
soon, and when it comes there will be general 
lament that the man who was best fitted to 
fill the place first, — ivit ad plures, — had gone 
before. 

Comegys kept his youth to the last ; he 
was interested in medicine to the very last 
day. * We must talk over the scheme of the 
University,' he would say to me, whenever 
I chanced to meet him. He could discuss 
any subject in medicine with any of the 



* The above reference is to Mr. Cleveland, then President of 
the United States.— Ed. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 69 

younger men, and with what freshness and 
philanthropy ! In the discussion of the fresh- 
air treatment of tuberculosis at the Academy, 
only yesterday it seems, he told the story of 
a young man who had recently consulted him. 
He had to say to him that his case was 
hopeless here, and to advise him to seek change 
of air. ' But,' said the young man, ' I have 
no means even to buy a street-car ticket.' 
Dr. Comegys informed him that money was 
not necessary ; that he should start and walk 
to Atlanta, and beg his way. He would give 
him, he said, a certificate of his condition and 
everybody would help him on the road. He 
could travel like a German student on his 
Wander j a hre, and no one would refuse him 
food. 'Silver and gold have I none, but such 
as I have give I thee.' 

" Comegys had the pure spirit of disciple- 
ship. This is what he said once of one of his 
teachers and in the presence of him in a pub- 
lic address. It was in the last days of George 
Wood, and the occasion was a speech which 



70 CORNKUUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

rightly made him famous before trie Alumni 
Association of the University of Pennsylvania. 
The Academy of Music was crowded with the 
elite of Philadelphia, for in that city the peo- 
ple still take deep interest in medical affairs. 
The old master sat on the stage, the central 
figure in a flood of light, but there was a 
shadow in front of him — the dark line of the 
scythe of the reaper, who was even then stand- 
ing close behind his chair. 'Venerable and 
remarkable man ! Who, without ever laboring 
for fame, has received it ; who, without ever 
climbing for great stations, has been lifted 
into them ; and no man ever suspected his 
capability for them, or envied him his well- 
merited success.' 

" 'Over a vast sea, beyond all storms,' he 
continued with his apostrophe, 'I behold a 
barque slowly moving through sluggish 
waters, borne so gently by the breeze that 
fills the stiffened sails that not a ripple breaks 
upon the heavy waves. Serenely stands the 
master at his post, steering for his last harbor. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 7 1 

Somber and shadowy is the scene about 
him; yet across yon headland comes a rosy 
tinge of sheen, lighting tip the tranqiiil face 
of the lone voyager who seeks the port of 
peace.' 

" These are the men who for three-quarters 
of a century have borne the standard of med- 
icine and surgery in the Queen City of the 
West. You may not point out in other fields 
greater purity of purpose, sacrifice of self, 
usefulness to others, than these lives have led, 
or show sentiments more sublime than these 
ideas have expressed. And the rank and file 
which followed, though failing from lack of 
opportunity or abilit}/ to express themselves 
in the same way, have led the same lives and 
held to the same ideals. 

" The memory of them inspires us. We, too, 
believe in necromancy, as we know that wis- 
dom and inspiration come from consulting the 
oracles of the dead. It is as Ruskin said: 
'The grave is the best pulpit; the voice 
reaches farthest from the grave.' 



72 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

" In contemplating the lives of these men 
the yonng physician may well be prond of his 
profession. When Correggio stood before a 
picture of Raphael, he cried : 'Auch' io SOW 
pittore' — 'I, too, am a painter;' and Byron, 
when he stood by the tomb of Galileo, ex- 
claimed : 'He was one of us.' * * * ." 

Dr. and Mrs. Comegys had a family of 
six children — two daughters and four sons : 
Ellen Tiffin Comegys, Mary Porter Comegys, 
Cornelius Marim Comegys, Edward Tiffin 
Comegys, William Henry Comegys, and 
Charles George Comegys. The daughters 
were born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the 
oldest son, Cornelius, in Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania, and the other three sons in Cin- 
cinnati. With the exception of Cornelius, 
who died of typhoid fever at the age of 
twenty years, all the children survived their 
parents. The daughters and youngest son, 
Charles, an attorney at law, resided with 
their parents and still live in Cincinnati. 
Major Edward T. Comegys, M. D., Surgeon, 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 73 

U. S. Army, and Major William H. Comegys, 
Paymaster, U. S. Army, reside at the several 
army stations to which they may be assigned. 
All are unmarried with the exception of 
Edward, who has been twice married. On 
February 14, 1882, he married Minnie G. 
Notson, daughter of Major William M. 
Notson, Surgeon, U. S. Army, by whom he 
had one child : Edward Tiffin Comegys, Jr. 
His wife died December 6, 1884. On May 5, 
1887, he married Grace Willcox, daughter 
of General Orlando B. Willcox, U. S. 
Army, by whom he had three children : 
Cornelius Willcox, Gerald Farnsworth, and 
Leonard Marim Comegys. All the children 
are living, except Gerald, who died at a 
very early age. 

The outlines of the life of Dr. Comegys 
sketched above seem meager and perhaps 
fail to do anything except to indicate the 
salient points of his career. His fellow- 
workers, friends, and patients could, no doubt, 
add much, even unknown to his own family ; 



74 CORNEUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

for lie was not boastful of his deeds, nor 
asked for recognition for his services. The 
results speak for themselves, though his 
long life was too short to do what he hoped 
to accomplish. 

It is always hard for a man of an active, 
buoyant temperment to realize that the 
infirmities of age are creeping upon him, 
and that his life's work is drawing to a 
close. So it was with Dr. Comegys. His 
was not a disposition which gave up easily, 
or retired to dream over the events of the 
past. He kept in touch with his profession 
and busied himself with the duties of the 
hour. There was no lack of energy on his 
part and his executive powers were still 
great. These he used to the last. 

His wife died on July 13, 1895, and in 
less than a year he followed her. Within 
a few weeks of his death he appeared to be 
in his usual health ; but, on Saturday, the 
eleventh day of January, 1896, he came home 
sick with nausea, and what was not then 



CORNEUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 75 

supposed to be very serious proved to be his 
last illness. At first lie was merely confined 
to the house and, though sick and nauseated, 
he saw some of his patients and even held 
a joint committee meeting, composed of mem- 
bers of the University Board and repre- 
sentatives from the Ohio Medical College, 
in reference to the proposed medical depart- 
ment of the University. Later, on January 
28, serious symptoms set in and he was 
confined to his bed, from which he never 
arose. His death occurred at a quarter to 
one o'clock in the morning of the tenth day 
of February, 1896.* 

* NOTE.— He died of "uraemia." 




IN HIS SIXTIETH YEA! 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 77 



FUNERAL SERVICES AT ST. PAUL M. E. CHURCH. 

February 12, 1896. 



The funeral services of Dr. C. G. Comegys 
were held in St. Paul M. E. Church, south west 
corner of Seventh and Smith Streets, at two 
o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, February 
12, 1896. 

The church was filled by the friends of the 
deceased to the number of one thousand or 
more. The Board of Directors, faculty, and 
students of the University, above fifty of the 
leading physicians of the city, the Official 
Board of the church, those connected with the 
several institutions of which he was a mem- 
ber, and hundreds of personal friends were 
present. The services throughout were sim- 
ple and solemn, making a deep impression 
upon all. 

The pastor, Rev. J. M. Meeker, Ph. D., was 
assisted in the services by Rev. Frank Woods 



78 CORNKlylUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

Baker, D. D., rector of St. Paul's P. E. 
Church, aud Rev. D. H. Moore, D. D., editor 
of the " Western Christian Advocate." 

At the house the pastor offered a brief 
prayer, and at the church read the Scripture 
sentences as the body was borne to the front 
of the chancel, while the organ sounded the 
solemn notes of the "Cujus Animam" from 
the "Stabat Mater." 

The congregation arose as the funeral 
cortege entered, and remained standing while 
a male quartet from St. Paul's P. E. Church 
impressively chanted, "Lord, Let Me Know 
Mine End and the Number of My Days." 

Rev. Dr. Baker read the Scripture selec- 
tions, the ninetieth Psalm, and a portion of 
the fifteenth chapter of I. Corinthians. 

The hymn, " Asleep in Jesus," was sung by 
the quartet, following which the pastor, Rev. 
Dr. Meeker, made a brief address, in which, 
while recognizing the high professional, intel- 
lectual, and social standing of Dr. Comegys, 
he emphasized his most striking characteristic 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 79 

of a Christlike life and devotion to the spirit- 
ual good of others. The quartet then chanted 
"Come Unto Me, All Ye that Labor and Are 
Heavy Laden," by Flemming. This was fol- 
lowed by a fervent and sympathetic prayer, 
offered by Dr. Moore. 

To the notes of the solemn "Funeral 
March," by Chopin, the sad procession moved 
out of the church. 

The active pallbearers were Drs. J. C. 
Oliver and J. A. Thompson, of the medical 
profession, and his office associates ; A. B. 
Benedict and E. K. Stallo, of the University 
Board ; Professor Ward Baldwin, of the Uni- 
versity faculty, and W. E. Brooks, of the Offi- 
cial Board of St. Paul M. E. Church. The 
honorary pallbearers were his attending phy- 
sicians, prominent members of the medical 
profession, the Board of Directors and Clerk 
of the University, members of the Official 
Board of the church, members of various 
boards and institutions with which he was 



80 CORNKlvIUS GP^ORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

connected, and many of his old and personal 
friends. 

The interment was in Spring Grove Ceme- 
tery, where the last rites were recited by Rev. 
Dr. Meeker in the presence, only, of the fam- 
ily and relatives. 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COM3GYS, M. D. 



MEMORIAL MEETING OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

February 11, 1896. 



At a called meeting of the medical profes- 
sion of Cincinnati, on February n, 1896, the 
following resolution was adopted, requested 
printed in the medical and public press, en- 
grossed upon the minutes of the Academy of 
Medicine of Cincinnati, and a copy sent to the 
bereaved family : 

"The medical profession is assembled to-day 
to express a last word in memory of their late 
associate, Dr. C. G. Comegys. 

" He was no ordinary man. For forty-eight 
years he has been a notable figure, not only 
in his profession, but as a citizen of pure life, 
of honest purposes, serving the public faith- 
fully, and w^ith great ability in various posi- 
tions. 

" In all his relations with us, his professional 
brethren, he was a gentleman, moved by the 



82 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

spirit of doing unto others as he would have 
them do to hirn. He detested everything that 
savored of the empiric. 

U A man of gentle, liberal spirit, he was char- 
itable and forgiving. He was, indeed, the 
friend of his profession, esteeming its object 
to prevent disease and to do good to all. 

"He was the friend of young men, and by 
his words of encouragement and his example 
did much to aid them. Yes, he did much 
to elevate the tone of the profession in this 
city. 

" Dr. Comegys was a man of superior intel- 
lect. He fully exemplified the fact that the 
strong physician is one whose mind is not 
' cabined, cribbed, or confined' by strictly tech- 
nical and professional reading, but is enlarged 
by all collateral studies and observation. He 
very early achieved a prominent place as a 
practitioner. He was a sound counsellor, a 
good clinician, a clear lecturer and teacher. 
He was the advocate of higher education for 
the people and for medical students. He did 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 83 

much by word and deed to further this great 
object. 

" He believed his profession, in its ability to 
do good mentally, morally, and physically, su- 
perior to any other. He often spoke of the 
power of the good, able physician. 

" He originated the idea of having a Board 
of Health created by Congress, whose head 
should be a physician and a Cabinet officer. 
His idea will yet take form. He advocated 
that physicians should be representatives of 
the people in Congress and the State Legis- 
latures. 

"A man of deep religious convictions, and 
yet charitable to all, he was dominated by 
the spirit of walking humbly and acting 
mercifully, serving Him whom he regarded as 
his Master and Saviour. He did not believe 
that it was all of life to live or all of death 
to die. 

" He belonged to the time when the general 
practitioner was not only the medical adviser, 
but the counsellor and friend of his clients. 



84 CORNELIUS GKORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

There were giants in those days. Up to a few- 
weeks before his death onr departed friend 
showed the ability and superiority of the gen- 
eral practitioner. 

" He is an example for every yonng strug- 
gling man. His honesty, his high tone, his 
noble purposes, his usefulness, should impress 
his memory on all. Let us cherish it. 

(Signed) John A. Murphy. 

B. P. Goodk. 

Wm. H. Taylor. 

Joseph Eichberg." 

Tribute of a former student to the memory 
of Dr. Comegys, delivered at the Academy of 
Medicine of Cincinnati, on Tuesday, February 
ii, 1896, at a called meeting: 

"Mr. President — I want to say a few words 
of tribute to the memory of one who was both 
my physician, teacher, and my friend, and 
who probably had a stronger hold on my 
heart-strings than any other member of my 
profession in this city. On meditating over 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 85 

the all-wise problems of nature, I sometimes 
think that, as each human being is born, 
nature holds back a certain portion of its 
reserve forces, and stores them away in a sort 
of strong box ; that once in every decade or 
generation these forces are given out to one or 
more creations who are destined to be leaders 
of men, to mold human thought, and to create 
the history of their age. At one time a great 
divine is thus given to the world ; at another 
time a great statesman, a great general, a 
great poet, and a great physician. I think 
that Dr. Comegys received a liberal share of 
these endowments from nature's strong box, 
for he certainly was well endowed with those 
faculties that go to make the great physician ; 
he was in fact one of those giants in medicine 
that, in general practice, are growing scarcer 
and scarcer in our profession. 

" Dr. Comegys was not only a great student 
of the medical literature of this country, but 
also in that of foreign countries as well. 
During his younger years in the practice of 



86 CORNBUUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

his profession he translated from the French 
one of the most extensive works of that time 
on the history of medicine. He was a par- 
ticularly warm admirer of the French school 
of medicine, and during his student-years at 
Paris and afterwards, he enjoyed the acquaint- 
ance and friendship of such men as Trous- 
seau, Nelaton, Charcot, and others, who for 
nearly a century molded the medical minds of 
France. Of the great services he rendered to 
medicine in our city and country you are all 
aware. 

"One of the greatest measures which he ad- 
vocated during the closing years of his brilliant 
career was his bill asking the National Con- 
gress to enact a law placing a member of our 
profession in the President's Cabinet as Sec- 
retary of the Department of Health. 

" In character Dr. Comegys was of that 
grand and lofty type that scorns expediency, 
but endeavors to perform every duty from mo- 
tives of right. His heart was as tender and 
sympathetic as that of a woman, and the young 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 87 

man who went to liim for counsel, in his 
sorrows or disappointments, always came 
away feeling better and with more manly 
resolves for the morrow. It could hardly be 
otherwise, for Dr. Comegys' words of advice 
and cheer always contained the sunbeams of 
hope. 

" I had the honor of serving for a term in 
the Board of Directors of the University of 
Cincinnati with the deceased, and during that 
time I learned to appreciate his zeal and 
earnestness in the cause of education and of 
broad humanity. He was in this, as in every- 
thing else that he undertook, faithful and 
zealous to a degree that won the admiration of 
his associates. Dr. Comegys possessed one 
of those beautiful, sunshiny natures that was 
pleasant to contemplate. It was a nature that 
was as modest and as free from affectation as 
that of a child. It was a nature that was as 
thoroughly free from envy and guile as that 
first faint streak of dawn that one sees in its 
sublimes t grandeur on the ocean, away off in 



88 CORNKlylUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

the distance, where the mighty expanse of 
water tonches the horizon, and which heralds 
the approaching day." * 



* From account published in the Western Christian Advocate, 
February 19, 1896, of remarks made by Dr. Francis Dowling. 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 89 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Cornelius G, Comegys. 



"There is no death! What seems so is transition; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 

Whose portal we call Death." 



"A eulogy or studied words of commenda- 
tion upon the life and character of the late 
Professor Cornelius G. Comegys cannot be 
given in the brief space allotted in a medical 
journal's columns. It would require many 
pages to do full justice to a man whose 
scholarly ability and high character have 
commanded the respect of a community for 
the space of more than half a century. For 
all these years Dr. Cornelius G. Comegys 
was constantly under the eye of the public, 
holding many important official positions to 
which he had been elevated by his fellow- 



90 CORNKUUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

citizens, who appreciated his sterling integrity, 
both in professional and public life. To every 
official position to which he was ever called 
this man gave his best time and abilities. 
A man of broad views, he was a determined 
spirit, yet his convictions and conclnsions 
were always expressed in a kindly and 
courteous manner. 

" In official life he was not a seeker after 
personal aggrandizement. As a member of 
the University Board of Cincinnati his self- 
abnegation and personal devotion to the 
cause of higher education will ever be remem- 
bered by all those who had the pleasure 
of knowing him as an associate. Dr. Cor- 
nelius G. Comegys has left a reputation as 
a rich heritage, a sweet memory, to those 
who love virtue in official life ; and the 
future historian of this great city, looking 
over the many, many years of faithful 
public service rendered by the deceased in 
his various positions of Alderman, member 
of the Board of Education, and University 



CORNELIUS GKORGK COMEGYS, M. D. 9 1 

Board, will accord him the credit for the 
prominent part he always took in the pro- 
motion of all that pertains to the trne and 
beantifnl for the masses of the people, to 
whom his heart ever went out. Let others 
speak of his medical abilities and brilliant 
mental attainments. We speak of him 
simply as a great and good citizen, one 
whose name will ever be identified with the 
growth and rounding out of a town and its 
evolution to a great, populous city. 

Dr. Cornelius G. Comegys lived long 
beyond the usual time allotted to man, and 
he compressed in the space of that life an 
immense amount of mental and physical 
exertion. Like one of the brave Knights 
of old, he passed away to the silent beyond 
still clad in his armor, 'faithful unto the 
end.' To him has come that long and well- 
deserved rest that all receive but that few 
deserve. The name of Cornelius G. Comegys 
will shine as long as Cincinnati exists in 
name. Though the star of his life has set, 



92 CORNELIUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

it sets 'As the morning star, which goes not 
down behind the darkened west, bnt melts 
away into the brightness of the coming day.' 

T. C. M."* 



* Dr. T. C. Minor. (Published in Lancet-Clinic.) 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 93 



Cornelius G. Comegys. 

"The death of a good man, grown old in the 
service of humanity, should call for more than 
passing notice, because of the vast influence 
such a life has exerted upon those with whom 
he has come in contact, and that his character 
may serve as a model to those of us who 
remain. 

Dr. Comegys has been a most useful man 
in this community because of his life and 
example. He was a dignified, courtly gentle- 
man, and consequently a man whose whole 
life was one of dignity, honor, and conscien- 
tious devotion to duty. 

A few of the characteristics which stood out 
pre-eminently in his character showed the 
secret of his success and power. He was an 
enthusiast, and never allowed obstacles to 
darken for one moment the light of his zeal. 
No better example of his enthusiasm can be 
given than his steadfast faith in the future of 



94 CORNELIUS GKORGlC COMEGYS, M. D. 

the University of Cincinnati. When this in- 
stitution was menaced by foes without and 
enemies within, he clung steadfastly to the be- 
lief that these trials would pass away, and the 
future thus remained one of hope and faith. 
The noble institution which now crowns the 
elevation in Burnet Woods testifies to the cor- 
rectness of his hope and faith. To him, more 
than to any other man, is due the credit of its 
present secure position. 

In local medical circles there is no honor 
which was not bestowed upon him. No phy- 
sician in Cincinnati ever held the respect and 
reverence of the entire profession more com- 
pletely than did he. Every physician recog- 
nized his true manhood, his justness, his fair- 
ness, and his utter incapability for anything 
small or mean. His conscientious regard for 
the rights and privileges of others often led 
him to suffer personal loss rather than to be 
accused of even 'the appearance of evil.' His 
love and respect for his profession never fal- 
tered ; he believed in it, and counted it the 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 95 

noblest of all professions. During the late 
years of his life the veneration of his chosen 
calling led him to propose and strenuously 
advocate the creation, in the National Govern- 
ment, of a Department of Public Health, the 
head of the department to be a member of the 
President's cabinet. No lower position met 
his idea of what the necessity of such a work 
deserved. 

Dr. Comegys was a firm believer in the 
tenets of the Christian religion. His beauti- 
ful character showed the depth of his belief 
far better than could anything else. He did 
not force his religious beliefs upon others, but 
by a life of singular purity demonstrated the 
truth of the religion of Christ. 

The writer enjoyed a very close and inti- 
mate association with the deceased, and feels 
keenly the loss of a true, steadfast friend, a 
wise and kindly adviser, a large-hearted mag- 
nanimous man, and a noble, earnest, and lov- 
ing physician. 

In considering our present bereavement we 



96 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

should look rather to the past than the pres- 
ent. We then see a long, useful life spent in 
the service of his fellow-man, a self-sacrifice to 
the duties and dangers of his profession, a 
character well-rounded by contact with all 
sorts and conditions of men, a name which 
shall ever be hallowed and revered by those 
who were fortunate enough to come within 
the sphere of his influence ; all this and much 
more may be seen in retrospect. His life was 
a triumph, and his death has but broadened 
and extended that usefulness which had but a 
narrow sphere this side of eternity. 

'His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, This is a man.' 

M. D."* 



* Written by Dr. J. C. Oliver, and published in the Cin- 
cinnati Tribune, February 12, 1896. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 97 

WESTERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 

February 12, 1896. 



Cornelius G. Comegys. 

''Cincinnati mourns the Nestor of her physi- 
cians, and onr Chnrch one of her princeliest 
laymen. At one o'clock, Monday morning, 
Dr. Comegys was called ; not unexpectedly, 
for he was in his eightieth year, and had 
been seriously ill. Only last summer the wife 
of his heart, the gracious and saintly Rebecca 
Tiffin, daughter of Ohio's first Governor, was 
called from his side. He pined for the ab- 
sent one; and yet maintained an outward 
calm, and suffered alone. It was during his 
early ventures in business that he wooed and 
won her ; and the gratification of his profes- 
sional ambition he ever ascribed to her encour- 
agement and cooperation. 

" But his teaching, and banking, and mill- 
ing were practical and most useful preparation 



98 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

for his real career, upon which he entered 
in this city in 1848, having graduated 
from the University of Pennsylvania as a 
Doctor of Medicine. Bishop Simpson was 
then editor of the " Western Christian Ad- 
vocate," and young Comegys, attracted by 
his genius, eloquence, and great-heartedness> 
himself a Methodist, became his ardent ad- 
mirer and confidential friend. The poise and 
evident ability of the young practitioner won 
the great man's faith and love, and the pro- 
fessional care of his family — a recognition of 
so conspicuous character that it at once estab- 
lished the young doctor in an enviable 
practice. 

"As skilful with pen as with scalpel, 3'oung 
Comegys recreated as assistant on the * Wes- 
tern/ and when, following his heroic and bril- 
liant cholera practice in 1849, ne wen t for 
higher medical learning to London and Paris, 
he became its European correspondent. His 
interest thus early formed for the paper never 
ceased, and occasionally, to the very end, he 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 99 

enriched its columns with his best thoughts 
on art and science, religion and Church 
polity. 

c< His youthful ardor in learning never left 
him or suffered the snows of age to lie upon 
his fertile brain. He kept his undimmed 
eye on science and philosophy, and eagerly 
scanned their latest achievements. His record 
herein is idyllic. 

"At the recent dedication of Hanna Hall,* 
University of Cincinnati, he presided with 
courtly grace, and his address was remarkably 
virile, and comprehensive of the true aims and 
requirements of a great modern educational 
institution. 

"He was a poem in clay. No Roman sen- 
ator ever presented a more commanding and 
lofty presence. There was the unconscious 
pride of high breeding and Revolutionary 
ancestry. Yet was there no trace of vanity 



* This should be McMickeu Hall. Hanna Hall was not yet 
built— Ed. 



IOO CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

or austerity. The reposeful dignity of con- 
scious strength blent with the kindly lines of 
almost womanly sympathy, and gave his im- 
perial presence a benign and winning aspect. 
His patients instinctively trusted him. Well 
they might, for, in addition to his wide learn- 
ing and marvelous natural resources, he never 
entered the siek room without consultation in 
silent prayer with the Great Physician — a fact 
known only in the innermost circle of his 
most sacred friendship. 

" He was a member and office-bearer in St. 
Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, in whose 
sacred temple his funeral rites are to be cele- 
brated this afternoon by the pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Meeker, assisted by the editor* of this paper, 
and Dr. Baker, the rector of St. Paul's 
Episcopal Church." 



* Rev. D. H. Moore, D. D. (writer of this memoir). 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. IOI 

CINCINNATI HOSPITAL 

Dp;ath of Cornelius G. Comegys, M. D. 



Cincinnati, O., March 6, 1896. 

•The following was adopted by the Medical 
Staff at their meeting held on the above date : 

" In noting the death of Cornelins G. 
Comegys, M. D., which occurred on the 10th 
ultimo, the Medical Staff desires to record its 
high appreciation of the abilities and virtues 
of its esteemed member. 

"For nearly forty years Dr. Comegys was a 
visiting physician to the Medical Department 
of the Hospital, in which capacity he mani- 
fested deep scientific interest in his w r ork, 
being always au eourant with the latest ad- 
vances of medical knowledge. He was tender 
and considerate of those under his care, and 
earnest and lucid in his clinical teaching. 

"His association with his colleagues was 
always characterized by cordial friendship, 



102 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

strict professional courtesy, and a sense of 
honor which marked the true gentleman. 

" During several years that he occupied the 
position of President of the Medical Staff he 
devoted much time and thought to the ad- 
vancement of the interests and efficiency of 
the Hospital. 

W. H. Taylor, M. D. 

G. A. Fackler, M. D. 

Thad. A. Reamy, M. D. 

F. FORCHHEIMER, M. D. 

J. C. Mackenzie, M. D." 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 103 

CHRIST'S HOSPITAL. 

Resolutions by Medical Staff. 



Resolutions of respect to the memory of 
C. G. Comegys, M. D., adopted by the Medical 
Staff of Christ's Hospital: 

"Whereas, Our Medical Director, C. G. 
Comegys, M. D., has been called by a Divine 
providence to a higher and greater sphere of 
usefulness ; and 

"Whereas, Christ's Hospital has lost a 
valued friend, a wise counsellor, and a noble 
and staunch advocate ; be it 

"Resolved, That we, the members of the 
Medical Staff, desire to express to the family 
of the deceased our great sympathy with them 
in their bereavement ; and 

"Resolved, That Christ's Hospital has lost a 
true and steadfast friend, — one whose zeal for 
the cause has never wavered ; one who, since 
the very inception of the institution, has stood 



104 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

steadfast and firm in his devotion to its inter- 
ests. When the days were dark and clonds 
threatened, his hand steered clear of the ob- 
stacles, and brought the institution to its 
present safe harbor. 

"Resolved, That each member of the staff 
feels a sense of personal loss. He was loved 
and revered by his associates. 'None knew 
him but to love him, none named him but to 
praise.' 

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions 
be published in the daily papers ; that a copy 
be sent to his family, and that a copy be 
spread upon the minutes of the staff. 

J. C. Oliver, M. D. 
J. M. Withrow, M. D. 
D. D. Bramble, M. D. 

Committee," 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 105 



CHRIST'S HOSPITAL. 

Extract from the 

Annual Report of the Secretary. 



"The Hospital sustained a great and irrep- 
arable loss in the death of the late C. G. 
Comegys, who had been prominently identified 
with this institution from its beginning, and 
served as its Medical Director. His interest 
in this work and love for it were exceptionally 
deep and strong. With advancing age, he 
surrendered nearly all of the positions of 
honor and trust he had held for many years ; 
but he determined to remain with us to the 
end, or so long as the Board of Trustees 
thought it wise. He named the Hospital, 
rejoiced in its growth, believed in its great 
future, and never wearied talking of its 
prospects. Forty years ago he had urged in 
vain the importance of this humane and 
churchly activity upon the attention of the 



106 CORNKUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

Methodist laity of this city. No one could 
have left us who would have been more missed 
from our counsels. 

H. C. Weakley, 

Corresponding Secretary. ' ' 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 107 



UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. 

Resolutions of the Board of Directors of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati in Memory of the 
Late Dr. Cornelius G. Comegys. 



"The Board of Directors of the University 
of Cincinnati has sustained a severe and 
grievous loss in the death of Dr. Cornelius G. 
Comegys, who departed this life on Monday, 
February 10, 1896, in the 80th year of his 
age. 

"For many years he has been our colleague, 
and for the past five years, he has with wis- 
dom and constant fidelity discharged the 
many and various duties of the Chairman of 
our Board. His dignity and cordiality of 
manner, his enthusiastic interest in the devel- 
opment, advancement, and welfare of the Uni- 
versity in all its branches of learning, and his 
inspiring personality will ever be remembered 
by us with sincere and profound respect. 



108 CORNKUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

"His life was active and progressive, not 
only in his professional career as an eminent 
and successful physician for almost a half 
century in this community, but also as a well 
informed, broad-minded, and public spirited 
citizen, who willingly assumed his share of 
the responsibility in a movement made in this 
city for public improvement ; his labors in the 
cause of humanity, his deeds of charity and 
benevolence, his conscientious and effective 
work as a Christian and active member of his 
church, his laudable record as an earnest and 
cordial friend of our Public Schools, and as an 
ardent advocate of higher education, have en- 
deared him to the hearts of his fellow-citizens, 
and his influence for good will be enduring 
and justly appreciated in this community for 
all time to come. 

"We point with pride to our new University 
Buildings, which were commenced and occu- 
pied for scholastic work during the adminis- 
tration of Dr. Comegys as Chairman of our 
Board, and with a sense of real justice, it is 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 109 

our pleasure to give full credit to him for his 
encouragement in the consummation of this 
most important undertaking. 

"The following concise statement gives the 
important incidents of his busy and well spent 
life: 

"He was born July 23, 18 16, at Cherbourg, 
Delaware, and descended from patriotic and 
distinguished ancestors ; his father was gov- 
ernor of his native state. He began life as a 
country school-teacher, later was a civil en- 
gineer, a bank clerk, and in 1848 was gradu- 
ated from the University of Pennsylvania as a 
Doctor of Medicine. Subsequently, he came 
to Cincinnati and soon obtained a large and 
lucrative practice, and he stood in the front 
rank of the men of his profession. 

"He assisted in organizing the Miami Med- 
ical College, the Cincinnati College of Medi- 
cine and Surgery, and at one time was identi- 
fied with the Medical College of Ohio as one 
of its Trustees, and was also a member of its 
Faculty. He was one of the founders and 



IIO CORNKIylUS GKORGK COMKGYS, M. D. 

twice President of the Academy of Medicine, a 
member of the American Medical Association, 
a member of the Delaware State Medical So- 
ciety, also of the Western Reserve Historical 
Society of Ohio, and a corporate member of 
the Historical and Philosophical Society of 
the State of Ohio. 

"In recent years he was Chairman of the 
Special Committee of the American Medical 
Association to secure an Act of Congress for 
the creation of a Department of Pnblic 
Health, the secretary of which was by the 
proposed law to be a cabinet officer with offi- 
cial position and powers eqnal to those exer- 
cised by the heads of other national depart- 
ments of our government ; this was a measure 
of so much importance in his estimation for 
the sanitary and hygienic protection of our 
country from infectious and contagious dis- 
eases, that he labored unceasingly in its be- 
half and looked forward to its ultimate accom- 
plishment with confident expectation. For 
many years he was a member of our City 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. Ill 

School Board, and also served as a member of 
our City Council, and was instrumental in 
establishing our Night High School, whose 
benefits were enjoyed by many who are prom- 
inent and influential men in our city at this 
time. 

"But it is with his long, years of devoted 
service as a member of the University Board 
we are most familiar, and it is with hearts full 
of sorrow we submit to the will of an All-wise 
Providence, who has removed from this com- 
munity, this most worthy and noble citizen, 
and has terminated the life of our esteemed 
associate and colleague, who devoted his 
talents and energy more for the good of others 
than for his own personal welfare and gain. 
We mingle our grief with others, who, like 
ourselves, knew full well his purity of char- 
acter, his sincerity of purpose, his extreme 
unselfishness, and the strength of his personal 
friendship. Therefore it is 

"Resolved, That as an expression of our 
great esteem and personal respect for the 



112 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

memory of the deceased, these resolutions will 
be spread upon the minutes of this meeting of 
our Board, and a copy of the same will be 
sent by the clerk to the family, with the 
assurance of our tender and heartfelt sym- 
pathy with them in their sad bereavement, 
and also a copy be furnished to the press. 

Frank J. Jones, 
Isaac M. Wise, 
Thad. A. Reamy, 
W. McAlpin, 
Edmund K. Stallo, 

Committee. ' ' 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 113 

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. 

Resolutions Adopted by the Faculty. 



"Whereas, Death has removed from our 
midst Dr. C. G. Comegys, the venerable and 
honored President of the Board of Directors 
of this institution ; therefore 

u Resolved ) That in the uniformly kind and 
courteous bearing of the deceased, in his moral 
earnestness, in his unwearied pursuit of ideal 
aims, in his love of truth yet kindly tolerance 
of views and judgments differing from his 
own, we recognize a character of rare attract- 
iveness and worth ; and that in his death we 
have lost a co-worker, counselor, and friend 
whom we deeply respected and warmly loved, 
while this institution has lost a zealous and 
faithful officer, one ardently devoted to its 
interests, and of firm and abiding faith in its 
future. 



114 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

" Resolved , That with profound gratitude we 
make recognition of the eminent services 
which, by his true and high ideals of Univer- 
sity life and aims, by his unwearied watchful- 
ness and unselfish labors through long years 
of struggle and discouragement, he has ren- 
dered to the cause of higher education in this 
community and to the upbuilding on firmer 
and broader foundations of this institution ; 
and that we hereby express our conviction 
that in the tradition of this noble life our in- 
stitution inherits something which will enter 
into its future as an inspiring and moulding 
force, being an incentive and stimulus to the 
young, and making ever for richer and truer 
life among them. 

"Resolved, That these resolutions be spread 
upon the minutes of the Faculty, that they be 
given to the daily press, and that copies be 
sent to the Board of Directors and to the 
family of the deceased," 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 115 

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. 

Resolutions Adopted by the Students. 



"Whereas, It has pleased God in His 
Wisdom to remove from our midst one who 
has been most earnest in love and labor for 
the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Cornelius 
G. Comegys ; and 

"Whereas, He has ever been a faithful 
advocate and defender of its interests ; there- 
fore, 

u Be it resolved, by the students of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati in a general meeting 
assembled, 

"First : In his death the University loses a 
stanch friend and one to whom is due, in great 
measure, its present position of influence as 
an educational institution. 

"Second: That we, who partake of the re- 
sults of his labor, mourn his loss as that of a 
beloved benefactor. 



Il6 CORNELIUS GEORGE COMKGYS, M. D. 

"Third: That a copy of these resolutions 
be sent to his bereaved family, as an expres- 
sion of our sympathy ; that they be published 
in the daily papers ; that copies be sent to the 
University publications ; that they be inscribed 
on the minutes of the Executive Committee ; 
and that a copy be presented to the Faculty. 

L,. D. Oliver, 
IyOuisK Spilman, 
Ethel Phillips, 
Edith Alden, 
Malcolm McAvoy, 
Ruth Butterworth, 
Charles Reinhart, 
Dudley Palmer, 

Committee. 
Salvia Kwan, Sec'y." 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 117 



ST. PAUL M. E. CHURCH. 



"The following minute was unanimously 
adopted by the Official Board of St. Paul 
Methodist Episcopal Church, on February n, 
1896: 

In Memoriam, 

"It is with deep regret and profound sorrow 
that we have to record the death of our dear 
brother, Dr. C. G. Comegys. 

"For nearly half a century he had been a 
member of St. Paul Methodist Episcopal 
Church, for many years was an honored 
teacher in the Bible School, and at the time of 
his death was one of the trustees of the 
Church. 

"He always took a great interest in all 
branches of the work of the church and 
school, and of the various societies connected 
therewith, and was very liberal with his means 
for their support. He was a regular attend- 



Il8 CORNEUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. t>. 

ant at all the services, and those who were 
accnstomed to hear him give his testimony at 
the prayer-meeting will miss his inspiring and 
helpfnl talks, which came from a heart filled 
with the Holy Spirit. 

"He was a typical Christian gentleman. 
His consistency of life, the wisdom of his 
counsels, the fervency of his prayers, his de- 
votion to his Church, and many winsome 
personal qualities endeared him to those with 
whom he associated as a Christian. 

"He was one of the best Bible students in 
the city, and was a man of great learning, and 
stood at the head of his profession. He was 
greatly interested in the welfare of his fellow- 
men, and did all in his power to further those 
institutions which were for the development 
of mankind, and gave much time and thought 
to the question of lifting the masses to a 
higher plane, and bringing them under the 
influence of the gospel. 

"He was of a cheerful and genial nature, 
and many in the various walks of life will 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 119 

mourn the loss of one who was such a devoted, 
good, broad-minded, and kind-hearted man. 
No one knew him but to love him, and no one 
conversed with him but he felt a desire to 
know more and to live a better life. 

"We desire to convey to the afflicted family 
of our deceased brother our sincerest sym- 
pathy, and we request that a copy of this 
minute be recorded in the minutes of the 
Board, and a copy be furnished to the family. 

R. S. Rust, 
W. A. Megrue, 
J. F. WlI/fSEE, 
W. E. Brooks, 

Committee'' 1 




Rebecca Tiffin Comegys. 



APPENDIX. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 1 23 



Mrs. Rebecca Tiffin Comegys. 

D Ebkcca Turner Tiffin was the youngest 
^ daughter of Dr. Edward Tiffin * and Mary 
Porter (his second wife). Her father was one 
of the most important historical characters of 
this state. Born in Carlisle, England, on June 
19, 1766, he came to this country, with his 
parents, at the age of eighteen years, and set- 
tled in Berkeley county, Virginia. He studied 
medicine at the Jefferson Medical College, 
and began practice in Charlestown, Virginia, 
where he speedily became prominent, socially 
and politically. When a party of Virginians 
came to the Territory north-west of the Ohio 
to take up land, he was among them and set- 
tled at Chillicothe. While in Virginia he so 
won the confidence and friendship of General 



* For a full account of Dr. Tiffin, see "L,ife of Dr. Edward 
Tiffin, First Governor of Ohio," by Col. W. E. Gilmore ; also, 
"A History of Ohio," by Daniel J. Ryan, p. 60 and p. 167. 



124 CORNEUUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 

George Washington as to receive from him a 
letter of introduction to General Arthur St. 
Clair, the Governor of the North-West Terri- 
tory. Edward Tiffin was a natural leader in 
public affairs, and when the Constitutional 
Convention was held in Cincinnati, for the pur- 
pose of the formation of a state, he was chosen 
the President of it. When Ohio was admitted 
into the Union, he was elected the first Gov- 
ernor; and, at the close of his term, was 
re-elected for a second. He was also at various 
times — Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives of the Ohio Legislature ; a United States 
Senator from Ohio ; Commissioner of Public 
Lands at the General Land Office (equivalent 
to what is now known as the Department of 
the Interior) at Washington, during Presi- 
dent Madison's administration. This latter 
office he voluntarily gave up, on account of 
his desire to return to his home, and took 
charge of the Land Office in Ohio, which he 
maintained at Chillicothe. He died on Au- 
gust 9, 1829. 



CORNELIUS GEORGE COMEGYS, M. D. 1 25 

Rebecca Turner Tiffin was born at Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio, on April 7, 1820, and lived there 
until her marriage to Cornelius George Coni- 
egys on October 3, 1839. ^ ne ^ rst ten y ears 
of their married life were divided between 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania — though the longer period was 
passed at the former place. She then returned 
with her husband to Ohio, and a new and per- 
manent home was established at Cincinnati, 
where she lived and died. 

The early years of married life were event- 
ful ones to the young wife, who, the youngest 
daughter of the family, inexperienced and 
naturally diffident, was placed in a new life 
involving strange and trying conditions ; but 
the inherent strength of her character devel- 
oped with the exigencies of the moment, and 
the burdens and cares of a large and growing 
family of children were borne with the uncom- 
plaining cheerfulness and unselfish affection 
which characterized her nature. 

Although naturally domestic in her disposi- 



126 CORNELIUS GEORGE COM^GYS, M. D. 

tion, she did not neglect her social duties, nor 
those of her church, to which her devotion was 
very great. She had at an early age, of her 
own free will, and without consultation with 
her family, become a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. This was done under a 
strong conviction of duty, and her faith never 
swerved to the end of her long and useful life. 
She engaged much in the religious duties and 
charitable work of the church, and was one of 
the foremost and faithful members of its 
societies. 

She was a member of the Ladies' Home 
Missionary Society (later absorbed by the 
Missionary Society of the M. E. Church), the 
Woman's Home Missionary Society, Vice- 
President and a life member of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society of the M. E. 
Church, and a member of the local societies of 
St. Paul M. E. Church. When the Sanitary 
Commission held its great "Fair," with 
branches in the principal cities (during one of 
the coldest winters ever known in this 






CORNELIUS GEORGE) COMEGYS, M. D. 1 27 

country), for the relief of the soldiers who 
were fighting for their country in the Civil 
War, she rendered effective aid in this noble 
work. Her life was full of good deeds. 

Her character is well described in the lan- 
guage of the following extract taken from a 
resolution passed, at her death, by a society to 
which she was much attached : " Gentle, un- 
assuming, shrinking, yet with a courage that 
would endure the fires of persecution if princi- 
ples were to be upheld ; loyal to conviction 
and duty, with a conscientiousness to be 
admired and emulated ; faithful unto death — 
such was our friend and sister."* 

She died,f at her home in Cincinnati, on 
Saturday, July 13, 1895, at ten minutes to 
eleven o'clock at night, after an illness which 
commenced on June 25. The funeral took 
place at her late residence on Tuesday after- 



* Resolutions by the Cincinnati Branch "Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society." The verses used in the dedication are also 
taken from these "resolutions." 

t Cause of death, "cerebral embolism." 



128 CORNKIJUS GKORGE) COMKGYS, M. D. 

noon, Jnly 16, 1895, at two o'clock. In the 
absence of the pastor of St. Panl M. E. 
Chnrch, Rev. D. H. Moore, D. D., editor of 
the "Western Christian Advocate/' assisted by 
Rev. F. W, Bope, assistant minister of St. 
Panl's P. E. Chnrch, conducted the services, 
which were simple, but impressive. Rev. Dr. 
Moore read a brief account of the life of the 
deceased, and Rev. Mr. Bope read the burial 
service. The hymns, "By Cool Siloam's 
Shady Rill," and "Asleep in Jesus," were 
sung by Mrs. Jeannie S. Healy. The 
burial at Spring Grove Cemetery was private 
— only the family and relatives being present. 
Rev. Dr. Moore read the committal at the 
grave. 



MAH £7 J 839 






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021 062 385 1 



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